Summary

This season saw EnsignPavel Chekov added to the regular bridge crew. Although his first appearance in "Catspaw" had him operating the science station, "Friday's Child" established him as the ship's primary navigator.

Although most episodes centered around the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, the other regular crewmembers began to appear more. After first commanding the ship in "The Return of the Archons", Scotty was firmly established as the Enterprise's third-in-command, with episodes like "Friday's Child", "The Apple", and "Bread and Circuses" giving screen time to his command. He was also given a spotlight in "Wolf in the Fold", in which he was accused of a series of murders. Chekov and Uhura were given a chance to accompany Kirk on an away mission in "The Gamesters of Triskelion" and Chekov also had a prominent role, and an opportunity for romance, in "The Apple". Sulu, on the other hand, was absent from nine consecutive episodes in the middle of the season, the result of a film George Takei was working on over-running.

The show continued Gene Roddenberry's original idea of political fables, with two episodes identified as providing somewhat opposing commentary on the Vietnam War. "A Private Little War" saw the Federation and the Klingons supporting opposing sides in a civil war, with Kirk talking of the need to maintain the balance of power, while "The Omega Glory" saw Kirk telling a race based around the American Constitution that the values of liberty and freedom of belief also applied to their enemies.

The season closed with "Assignment: Earth", a back door pilot for a proposed spin-off series which saw Kirk and Spock encountering Gary Seven, a man employed by mysterious aliens to watch over 20th century Earth.

Background Information

There were some "upgrades" to bridge equipment made at the start of this season (most notably the helm console), but these changes aren't always visible because first-season footage was used in many bridge scenes. You can recognize this footage when you see the viewing screen and the back of Sulu's head – the navigator isn't shown because Walter Koenig hadn't signed on when this footage was filmed. The black viewer or scope at Spock's library computer station was replaced with a white one (that came with a knob on the left side). A similar scope was added to Scotty's engineering station.

For the second season, the production budget per episode was around US$185,000, slightly less than Season 1.

Lawrence Montaigne, who played Stonn in "Amok Time", and Mark Lenard were both being considered as possible replacements for Leonard Nimoy prior to the beginning of the second season if contract negotiations had fallen through.[1][2] Nimoy's agent had asked for Nimoy's salary to be increased from US$1,250 per episode during the first season to US$9,000 for the second season. Eventually a compromise figure of US$2,500 per episode was reached and Nimoy signed on for the second season. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, pp. 317-324)

Dr. McCoy's sickbay gained a lab this season. The back bulkhead of said lab appears to be one of the bulkheads of the SS Botany Bay from "Space Seed".

A new expanded engineering set was built, including a small set called "Emergency Manual Monitor" built on stilts that looked down onto the engineering set.

In the second season more emphasis was put on the supporting characters (especially Scotty and Chekov), but the show didn't feature scenes of every-day activity around lower decks of the ship anymore as it did in the first season.

Beginning with Season 2, the episode titles and credits were in the same font as the series title. Also, DeForest Kelley's and Gene Roddenberry's names were added to the opening credits.

Also, during the opening credits, the Enterprise fly-by and the planet that the Enterprise orbited were different from that of Season 1.

The theme music for the series was slightly re-arranged this season, with Loulie Jean Norman supplying vocal accompaniment.

Season 2 was a period of behind-the-scenes transition from Desilu to Paramount production. On 15 February1967, Gulf+Western's purchase of Desilu was announced. It was commemorated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 26 July. Gulf+Western executives were known to have signed off on production of the then-upcoming Season 2 of Star Trek, as they would have been financially obligated to continue its production after the sale. Therefore, Season 2 technically began filming as a Desilu/Gulf+Western co-production. (Sanders, Coyne Steven and Tom Gilbert. Desilu: The Story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. HarperCollins. 1994. 297-298) However, the December 1967 intra-company merger between Paramount Pictures and Desilu caused later episodes of the season to be labeled "a Paramount production". Episodes throughout the season thus have a variety of different ownership claims. TOS: "Journey to Babel" is a simple "Desilu production" under just the Desilu logo, while the later "A Piece of the Action" displays the Desilu logo, but a Paramount Pictures Corporation copyright.

"Mirror, Mirror" was the first to be filmed after the late July ribbon-cutting on the Gulf+Western/Desilu merger, but no episode of the season began filming prior to the February merger announcement.

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